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Spain Rodriguez
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== Career == [[File:Zodiacmindwarp1.jpg|thumb|''Zodiac Mindwarp'' cover art by Rodriguez]] In New York City, during the late 1960s, he became a contributor to the [[underground newspaper]] the ''[[East Village Other]]'', which published his own comics tabloid, ''Zodiac Mindwarp'' (1968). [[Trashman (comics)|Trashman]]'s first appearance was as a full-page serial in the ''East Village Other''.<ref name="vimeo/49237109">{{cite web |last1=Stern |first1=Susan |title=Trashman: The Art of Spain Rodriguez |url=https://player.vimeo.com/49237109 |publisher=[[Burchfield Penney Art Center]] |access-date=27 August 2024 |date=2012-11-09 |via=[[vimeo]]}}</ref><ref name= "TrashmanLivesIV">Rodriguez, Spain. ''Trashman Lives!'' (Fanatagraphics Books, 1997), p. iv.</ref> He covered the [[1968 Democratic National Convention]] in Chicago as a reporter for the ''East Village Other'', adventures which were chronicled in ''My True Story'' ([[Fantagraphics Books]], 1994). One of his earliest strips, "Manning," featured a hard-boiled, over-the-top cop and was later cited as an influence on the British comics character [[Judge Dredd]].<ref>Baeza, Rodrigo. [http://comicscommentary.blogspot.com/2012/11/spain-rodriguezs-manning.html "Spain Rodriguez's "Manning"] Comics Commentary Blog (2012).</ref> <blockquote>"When I met him, he struck me as an archetypal character. Somewhere between a crazy artist crossed with a left wing radical, crossed with a working class Latino hood" - [[Robert Crumb]]<ref name="V/msr/RIP">{{cite news |last1=Gazin |first1=Nick |title=RIP Spain Rodriguez |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/rip-spain-rodriguez-2/ |access-date=27 August 2024 |work=VICE |date=29 November 2012}}</ref></blockquote> Spain was a co-founder<ref name="Ec/msr">{{cite web |title=Rodriguez, Manuel 1940- |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/rodriguez-manuel-1940 |website=[[Encyclopedia.com]] |access-date=27 August 2024}}</ref> (with Nancy Griffith, [[Bill Griffith]], [[Robert Crumb]], [[Justin Green (cartoonist)|Justin Green]], [[Art Spiegelman]], [[Roger Brand]], and [[Michele Brand]]<ref name="fiu/20231119/bG">{{cite web |title=Cartoonist Bill Griffith: Creator of Zippy the Pinhead |url=https://artspeak.fiu.edu/interviews/bill-griffith-2/ |website=ArtSpeak |publisher=[[Florida International University]] |access-date=27 August 2024 |location=Miami Book Fair |date=November 19, 2023 |quote=Interviewer: Raymond Elman. Videographer: Lee Skye.}}</ref>) of the [[United Cartoon Workers of America]],<ref name="Gabilliet/chACB">{{cite book |last1=Gabilliet |first1=Jean-Paul |editor1-last=Gabilliet |editor1-first=Jean-Paul |editor2-last=Beaty |editor2-first=Bart |editor3-last=Nguyen |editor3-first=Nick |title=Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books |date=2009 |publisher=[[University Press of Mississippi]] |isbn=9781604732672 |url=https://archive.org/details/ofcomicsmencultu0000gabi |access-date=27 August 2024 |chapter=The United Cartoon Workers of America |via=[[archive.org]]}}</ref><ref>Booker, M. Keith, editor. ''Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas'' ([[ABC-CLIO]], 2014), p. 838.</ref><ref name="ha/ucwa">{{cite web |last1=Poplaski |first1=Peter |last2=Loft |first2=Peter |title=United Cartoon Workers Logotype and ... |url=https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/illustrations/peter-poplaski-and-peter-loft-projunior-1-story-page-3-and-united-cartoon-workers-logotype-original-art-group-of-2-kitchen-sin/a/322434-48217.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115 |website=Heritage Auctions |access-date=27 August 2024}}</ref> The U.C.W. of A. brand appeared on a number of comix of that era.<ref>''[[Young Lust (comics)|Young Lust]]'' #3 (Last Gasp, June 1972).</ref><ref name="Crumb/1972/XYZ"> *{{cite web |last1=Crumb |first1=Robert |title=XYZ Comics |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.165786.html |publisher=[[Kitchen Sink Enterprises]] |date=1972 |quote=The title is written with large yellow letters for the “XYZ” and the “comics” below is in black cursive letters. Above the main title, at the top center, it reads “The Last Word in Comics!” in black script. A yellow medallion on our upper left has the head of a man in a hat and has the text, “KITCHEN SINK ENTERPRISES” printed around the edge. On our upper right, there is a yellow hexagon printed with, “MEMBER UNITED CARTOON WORKERS OF AMERICA.” On our right, next to the main title, “50¢” is printed while at the bottom of the main rectangle in a yellow circle “Krazy Kool” is written.}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20240827174742/https://media.nga.gov/iiif/5a1dfa2f-3066-4885-a4ec-17f372745308__640/full/full/0/default.jpg cover]</ref><ref>[[Robert Crumb]] [https://www.comics.org/issue/276093/ Home Grown Funnies #1] (January 1971) [[Kitchen Sink Press]] (Features the membership badge of the United Cartoon Workers of America.)</ref><ref>[https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/specialcollections_adlerarchive_undergroundcomix/86/ Lean Years] Contributors: Kim Deitch, Leslie, John Pound, Mike Royer, Trina, Chris Warner. Editors: Barry Siegel and Bruce Simon. Member: United Cartoon Workers of America. [[San Francisco]]: [[Cartoonists' Co-op Press]], 1974</ref> <blockquote>"In November 1970, [[Simon Deitch]], [[Rory Hayes]], and Spain Rodriguez organized a meeting at Rodriguez’s home to debate the foundation of a movement that could, if need be, attach itself to the [[IWW]]. From this first meeting came the name of the association, “United Cartoon Workers of America” (UCWA), but no other concrete decisions were made. The following month, over the course of a second meeting that assembled a greater number of participants with assistance from [[Rip Off Press]], the creators placed their own status in underground publishing on the table. As independent creators, they circulated in a restricted network of small publishing houses, none of which realized any particularly elevated profits at the expense of the creators. In the eyes of some, like Roger Brand, this working situation did not justify the existence of a union. The third meeting was more didactic: Albert Morse, the lawyer for [[Zap Comix]] (and for Robert Crumb), wrote a report on the topic of royalties, [[Greg Irons]] explained how to buy art supplies in bulk, and Bill Griffith dissected the costs of printing and distribution. The creators present at this meeting agreed on a general page rate of twenty-five to thirty dollars a page, and on the royalties of about one thousand dollars for twenty thousand copies of a thirty-six-page comic book sold for fifty cents. Subsequent meetings took place but no union saw the light of day."<ref name="Gabilliet/chACB"/></blockquote> Spain contributed to numerous [[underground comic]]s in the 1960s–2000s, including ''[[San Francisco Comic Book]]'', ''[[Young Lust (comics)|Young Lust]]'', ''[[Arcade (comics magazine)|Arcade]]'', ''[[Bijou Funnies]]'', ''[[Weirdo (comics)|Weirdo]]'', and [[Harvey Pekar]]'s ''[[American Splendor]]''. Spain joined the ''[[Zap Comix]]'' collective in issue #4 (August 1969), and contributed stories to every issue from then until the comic's demise in 2005. In such classics as Spain's ''Mean Bitch Thrills'' ([[Print Mint]], 1971), Spain's women are raunchy, explicitly sexual, and sometimes incorporated macho [[sadomasochism|sadomasochistic]] themes.<ref>Wetham, Justin. [http://www.diesirae911.com/spain.html "About Spain,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710123625/http://www.diesirae911.com/spain.html |date=2011-07-10 }} Dies Irae (2006).</ref> <blockquote>"Spain Rodriguez’s work stands above that of all the other male artists in this creation of sexually explicit comics art, both because he was so prolific and popular, and because he strove to show his sympathy toward women’s passions and struggles. Admittedly, he did so in ways that were distinctively his own."<ref name="LArB/pb/msr">{{cite news |last1=Buhle |first1=Paul |author1-link=Paul Buhle |title=Comics as Erotic Art: Funny or What? |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/comics-as-erotic-art-funny-or-what/ |access-date=27 August 2024 |work=[[Los Angeles Review of Books]] |date=22 June 2019}}</ref></blockquote> <blockquote>"The tall, leggy, often half-naked “Big Bitch” is a raunchy, explicitly sexual Rodriguez character who appears in ''She Comics'' in stories that often incorporate macho, sadomasochistic themes."<ref name="UB/pd/msr">{{cite web |last1=Donovan |first1=Patricia |title=Celebrating the work of indie comix Spain Rodriguez |url=https://www.buffalo.edu/ubreporter/archive/2009_10_14/rodriguez_comix.html |website=www.buffalo.edu - UB Reporter |publisher=[[University at Buffalo]] |access-date=27 August 2024 |date=October 14, 2009}}</ref></blockquote> After moving from New York City to [[San Francisco]] in 1970, Spain's ''Subvert Comics'' series (1970–1976)<ref>Issues #1–2 were published in 1970 and 1972 by [[Rip Off Press]]; issue #3 was published by Saving Grace, a Division of [[Keith Green (art)|Keith Green]] Industrial Realities in 1976.</ref> featured "three full length ''[[Trashman (comics)|Trashman]]: Agent of the Sixth International'' stories."<ref name="TrashmanLivesV">''Trashman Lives'', pg. v.</ref> Trashman later appeared in such publications as ''[[High Times]]'', ''[[Heavy Metal (magazine)|Heavy Metal]]'', ''[[Weirdo (comics)|Weirdo]]'', ''[[San Francisco (magazine)|San Francisco]]'' magazine, ''Zap'' #11–13, and the Fantagraphics anthology ''[[Zero Zero (comics)|Zero Zero]]'' #2.<ref name="TrashmanLivesV"/> From 1976 to 1998, Spain contributed cover art to more than a dozen issues of the popular pornographic magazine ''[[Screw (magazine)|Screw]]''.<ref name="caF/msr/Screw-627">{{cite web |last1=Rodriguez |first1=Spain |title=Screw Magazine issue 627 cover (1981) |url=https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1999229 |website=Comic Art Fans |access-date=27 August 2024 |language=en}}</ref> From 1998 to 1999, Spain drew the continuing graphic story, ''The Dark Hotel'', which ran on the website ''[[Salon (website)|Salon]]'' Spain drew ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]' Strangest Cases''<ref>(Word Play Publications, 2001)</ref> based on [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s stories: "[[The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb]]," "[[The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual]]," "[[The Adventure of the Devil's Foot]]," "[[The Adventure of the Speckled Band]]," and "[[The Adventure of Black Peter]]."<ref name="cartoonart/strangest">{{cite web |title=Sherlock Holmes' Strangest Cases |url=https://www.cartoonart.org/store/sherlock-holmes-strangest-cases |website=[[Cartoon Art Museum]] |access-date=27 August 2024}}</ref> Spain's later work included an illustrated biography of [[Marxist]] revolutionary [[Ernesto "Che" Guevara]], ''Che: A Graphic Biography'' ([[Verso Books]], 2008). Published in several different languages, it was described by cartoonist [[Art Spiegelman]] as "brilliant and radical."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ubspectrum.com/article/40621 |title=Bennett, Jessica. "Road Vultures back in town for Comicon", ''The Spectrum'', October 21 2009. |access-date=2009-10-21 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304212301/http://www.ubspectrum.com/article/40621 |url-status=dead }}</ref> His history of the California [[farm worker]] movement, ''Farmworker Comix'' was published posthumously in 2014 by the California Federation of Teachers. Spain designed at least five posters for the [[San Francisco Mime Troupe]], a political satirist theatre company.<ref>{{cite web |title=Spain Rodriguez |url=https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Rodriguez%2C+Spain%22 |website=[[Internet Archive]] |access-date=9 November 2021}}</ref> Rodriguez taught art classes at [[Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts]] for many years, and he supported the creation of murals in the [[Mission District, San Francisco|Mission District]].<ref name=NYTimes>{{Cite news|last=Weber|first=Bruce|date=2012-12-03|title=Spain Rodriguez, Artist of Underground Comics, Dies at 72|language=en-US|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/arts/spain-rodriguez-creator-of-underground-comics-dies-at-72.html|access-date=2021-10-14|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Spain did [[Xerox art|color xerox]] postcards and prints in the late '70s/early '80s at [[Galería de la Raza]].<ref name="ra/2013/msr">{{cite web |last1=Yañez |first1=Rio |title=The Mission District Art of Spain Rodriguez |url=https://rioyanez.com/2013/03/16/the-mission-district-art-of-spain-rodriguez/ |website=rioyanez.com Graphic Art, Tortillas, Comics, and Troublemaking |access-date=27 August 2024 |language=en |date=16 March 2013}}</ref>
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